High School

One way or another, the good times had to end.
For Staunton River, that ending came sooner than anyone wanted.
On a watery Wednesday the last two Eagle teams fell out of the running for state glory. The baseball crew was stunned by Rustburg, 6-4 while the girls’ soccer squad was done in by Western Albemarle, 3-0.

Bedford County athletes fell short of their dreams at the State championship track and field meets (for both 4A- and 3A-level schools) last weekend. Except for one.
Jefferson Forest’s Alyssa Shupe was the sole trackster from the county to bring home the gold, taking top honors in the 800 meter run.

The classrooms may have been silent, but the fields of Jefferson Forest certainly were not.
In spite of the school year’s end, JF athletes were still in the swing of things. While others headed to the beach, the Cav baseball and soccer teams, as well as the Lady Cav softball and soccer squads, were in action during Monday’s Conference 24 opening games.

In most sports this scholastic year, Brookville has found a good measure of success against teams from Liberty.
In football, volleyball, basketball (both boys and girls), swimming, wrestling, baseball and softball, the Bees have had reigned over teams bedecked in red, white and blue.
Soccer, though, is another story.
The Minutemen topped the visiting Brookies, 1-0, while the invading Lady M-Men took a 4-0 win.

Big on the Golden Eagles’ menu this past week was Alleghany.
The good news was that the baseball and girls soccer teams got back on track with key wins over the Mountaineers.
The middlin’ news was that the boys soccer team saw its game with the Alleghanians rained out to a later date.
The bad news was that the softball team suffered its first loss of the Blue Ridge season.

‘Tis a well-known fact that there is little love between Brookville and Jefferson Forest.
Sited about four miles apart, as the crow flies, and about six miles, as the bus drives, the Bees and Cavs are natural rivals.
Any antipathy between the schools only grew in magnitude after the softball and baseball teams got together last week.

There is a natural rivalry between Jefferson Forest and Liberty.
In softball, that rivalry is compounded due to the fact that both schools have a long history of excellence in the sport.
Further mitigating things is that the players know each other so well from, among other things, travel ball.
So, one can expect an exciting game whenever the two teams get together, right?
Darn tootin’!